It’s time once again for Google I/O, and the company plans to pack a week’s worth of announcements into a single keynote address, so this should be interesting.

Take a look back at our live coverage of Google’s flagship conference, which started at 9am PT Wednesday. We’re not expecting as major a news event as we have in past years, but there will be no shortage of updates to the company’s plans for Android, Chrome, YouTube, and its cloud-computing services. We’ll have a full contingent of GigaOM reporters at the show bringing you updates both here and throughout the course of the day, so stay tuned.

“I disclosed yesterday my voice issues. And I got so many great emails from people, and thoughtful advice. And we think some of this should be private, but in my case I wish I would have done it sooner.”

“If you’re going to make a smartphone for a dollar, that’s almost impossible to do, but if you took a 50 year longview, you’d take the longview, and eventually you’d figure out how to make money.” Says it’s all about the longview in lowering the cost of technology.

Based on Larry’s answer to the next question, it’s clear he wants more openness in the industry instead of a “zero sum” game. Microsoft now supports Google messaging in Outlook, but Microsoft didn’t reciprocate, he says.

“Sergey and I talk a lot about cars, he’s working on automated cars now, so imagine how automated cars would change the landscape?” Talks about the potential for fewer parking lots, fewer accidents, shorter commutes, etc.

“Every story I read about Google is us versus some other company, or some stupid thing, and I don’t find it that interesitng. We should be building things that don’t exist.” — Larry. “Being negative is not how we make process. Most important things are not zero sum. There’s a lot of opportunity out there.”

Every day I come to work, and the list of things that need to be done is longer than the day before, he says. We at Google, and all of you, are only at one percent of what is possible, maybe even less than that.

Getting an overview of Street View and how it’s grown. They’ve driven 5 million miles with the cars to record imagery, as well as up trains through the Swiss Alps, down the Amazon on a boat, and underwater in the Great Barrier Reef.

Kevin and I are wondering if this could hurt travel apps like Tripit that organize all your travel details in one place. Certainly what Google Now is looking to do (organize your flight and hotel info for whenever you need it.)

Hands-free search using the knowledge graph up next. Wright shows how you can ask for “show me things to do in Santa Cruz,” and get suggestions for family-friendly activities. You can even ask for photos of the boardwalk and see what it looks like.

So if you upload a photo to Google+ of the Eiffel Tower, for instance, even if you don’t add a caption that says so, Google will reocognize the image and add an appropriate tag (although you can remove those tags if you want.)

What’s interesting is that Google isn’t just pushing a desktop experience to tablets or a tablet experience to the desktop. It’s finding which offers the best experience and bringing it to all devices.

Abandonment rate of shopping on mobile phones is 98 percent, so they’re using autocomplete features on Chrome so that once you enter payment information, it will sync across your devices. Will help you check out and pay on mobile.

So last chance guesses: More software features for apps on Chrome and Android is my guess. But as a gadget guy, I really want to see some hardware too. Still hoping to see a touch-based Chrome tablet that docks with a keyboard, but maybe that’s just me. ;)